I have discussed elsewhere on my site ways to simplify life. Now I wanted to
discuss specifically menu planning and how this can be a great help in
simplifying life. I discuss a lot about menu planning on my website but lately
have tried something new that I wanted to share.

To begin with having a menu planned brings simplicity. Have you ever watched the
clock tick away in a day knowing you did not have anything planned for dinner?
It is a nagging feeling on your mind. By the time the dinner hour approaches you
are throwing together anything you can or calling for pizza to be delivered. I
have been there too. The problem I have with this is that my whole day can be
distracted simply by not planning. Not to mention I spend valuable resources on
unhealthy foods or expensive food items because I am relying on convenience
foods to help me out of my dilemma.

Normally when I plan a menu I sit down and write out a list of all possible
meals I want to serve that month. I take note of new recipes I want to try, busy
days that need easy meals, and weekend meals that may need more flexibility and
so on. Then I fill in my calendar with a meal for each day of the month. This
works but does require a lot of time. So in order to simplify the process I have
created my 10 day menu.

My 10 day menu is a rotating menu for the month. I plan out 10 meals and repeat
this three times during the month. Years ago I had the seven day menu plan but I
found my family got tired of eating the same meal four times in a month. This 10
menu plan is a variation of this. We only see the same meal three times.

Now the best part about this menu plan is that I can have a lot of flexibility.
For instance I may write down “chili” as one of my 10 meals. But I can choose on
that day to have chili or crockpot chili or chili bean soup or black bean
chicken chili, or lentil chili. I can serve chili three times that month and no
one gets tired of it due to its repetition. The same is true for spaghetti. I
can have spaghetti, baked spaghetti, goulash (by adding some macaroni noodles to
it) or turn it into lasagna or even pizza if I want to. Something about just
having my menu plan and a direction to think and follow each day helps me to put
my meals together easily.

The best part of this 10 day menu plan for me is that now I spend much less time
thinking about which meals to serve and less time planning my whole month of
meals. I also spend less time shopping and I save money by keeping my grocery
lists simple and to the point.

I remember a time not long ago that I felt my life was on the verge of just
being too overwhelming. I was thinking about all that I could take off my plate,
so to speak, in order to bring things back to a point where I did not feel
overwhelmed. I realized that aside from a few things, there really was not a lot
I could delete. So I had to have another plan. That plan involved reducing the
weight of the load in as many areas of my life as I could. Menu planning and
cooking was one of those areas I assessed and reevaluated. I asked myself how I
can make this simpler while not compromising budget or nutrition. As I talked to
husband about this he was the one that said, well how about a 10 day menu plan
instead of a seven day (which we both knew had not worked well in the past).
That is when I took the idea and started trying it out. For the last six months
I have been doing this and have loved the time and freedom the plan has given
me.

As you can see I don’t plan the side dishes but do that during the week. I tend
to make a small list of basic side dishes that I serve with certain foods. For
instance, when I serve chili I will choose either cornbread or tortilla chips.
When I serve chicken noodle soup I will serve dinner rolls or crackers with
this. All meals include a green salad, coleslaw or cooked vegetable. I choose
the salad or coleslaw most often as a way of getting a good supply of fresh
veggies into our diet. When I am nearing grocery shopping day and am running low
of fresh vegetables then I will serve a cooked vegetable (I use frozen most
often). Some meals, such as Laurie’s mac and cheese w/ham don’t need anything
extra with them except a salad.

I still write out my menu on my menu planning calendar and just pick and choose
the order I want to serve my meals in during the week. If for some reason I want
to try a new recipe, make a special request from my family or just am inspired
that day to make something different, I just do this and whatever meal I would
have served that day gets taken off the list.

I have been very happy with this plan and the time it has saved me. If you are
looking at ways to simplify your life you might want to try the 10 day menu plan
and see if it works for your family.